U.S. Mail Steamship Company

Before the transcontinental railroad opened in 1869 or direct shipping from the Atlantic to the Pacific was possible in 1914 with the completion of the Panama Canal, travel between New York and the West coast required sailing from New York to the Atlantic coast of Panama (usually with stops en route in New Orleans, Havana, and sometimes Jamaica), transit across the isthmus, followed by the Pacific journey to San Francisco. The Atlantic harbor in Panama was Chagras until 1855, when it was moved to Aspinwall.